Fireflies PL47 Flashlight

Honda CB750 KZ when I was 20 (unconditional job offer from BAe before I graduated convinced the bank manager to give me the loan.)

Then more big Hondas, moved on to BMW. K100 RT, K1, R1100GS (still have the last two, the K1 being rather a classic. As well as a little Kawasaki KLX250 to put on a rack on the back of the camper.

Also swap these around with a trusted brother, modern BMW750 GS, classic R100GS PD in as-new condition, replacing the one that we wore out over a decade of long European tours with our GFs on the back. Honda XR400 (Australian import stripped down and tuned, doesn’t even have a battery), Suzuki GSXR750. Honda Firestorm 750 twin, several big Kawasakis, etc. etc.

V45 was a blast. My buddy, who is 60 lbs. lighter, had the v65 . It felt like it would never quit pulling! Both great bikes from the 80’s

Can’t really have anything 6000K or north without some blue, that’s how blackbody radiation works after all. I would imagine worse rendering of the rest of the visible spectrum is what makes some emitters look so much MORE blue than others however.

Between a slightly green hue and tons of tint shift I will take the green every time. To me its the wild shift in colors as you move the beam/your focus that is really disorienting and makes colors hard to distinguish. XP-G3 HCRI is a great example of this, I would take MANY other emitters over that.

Nice Rides Tom Tom!

I thought my V45 was fast, then I rode with a guy that had the V65, dang thing would scream off away from me in 2nd gear! He claimed it’d do 110 in 2nd, I don’t know, but it was greased lightning in the days before crotch rockets. Seeing him on his, the way the shaft drive would scrunch the wheel base shorter and make the bike stand up, made me realize my mono-shock wasn’t working! Honda wanted $600 for a new one, back in ’87 I think, early days of internet, I found one online at a bike salvage yard in VA for $200. Man was my bike so much better for it! (I was 135 lbs back then, thought the shock just was geared for a heavier driver, lol)

Methinks Fireflies needs to give us some flashaholic fodder…

Until the camchain system failed, which they all did :frowning:

As with my CB750KZ, I had to replace both of them, and the tensioners, twice in 60K miles. By then the piston rings were so worn that it could take a minute of cranking before it even coughed. And the clutch was barely usable (slipping at any moderate torque).

Never got more than 40 mpg from it either, usually 35. It had poor diaphragm carburettors with “power boost” jetting that guzzled juice.

Which Is why switched to BMW. To get 55 or 60 MPG (genuine), instant starting (fuel injection), no greasy chains to adjust and replace, double the service interval, a genuine 140 mph sustainable performance in comfort (those were the days, I’d better say no more, but 800 miles in one day from UK to Southwest France was a regular run), topping out at just over 160 on the K1, electrically heated handgrips, Nivomat self-levelling suspension. And the first ABS brakes.

Nothing else came close, in those days.

Built in Spandau, before the Wall came down.

According to manufacturer documentation, LH351D is also available in 6000K CCT 90 CRI.

They part number for that is: SPHWHTL3DA0GF4PQS6

BLF members with better connections to the retailers should push for this specific model, as Nichia 219C 90 CRI 5700K is also a very gorgeous CW (actually feels NW just a bit on the CCW side) emitter. For me Nichia E21A 6500K, which is available from Clemence, is a bit too cold white, but it still handles browns and reds very well !!

So I will have very high expectations for the LH351D 6000K 90 CRI, just I wish, it would be available.

I had zero clue that 6000K Samsung existed but would be VERY excited to get my hands on it, I’ve wanted one of the Jaxman lights with 5700k Nichia for a while now but just haven’t gotten around to deciding what driver I’ll swap in.

Your best bet for the Jaxman lights would be the LD-A4 from LED4Power.

Linear FET driver, and at 6A, it would be perfect for short bursts of light, and if you can keep it cool, it will be able to sustain regulated brightness.

And you won’t have any luck about that 6000k LH351D. No e-parts retailer carriers it, not even Digikey and manually searching for it.

I was looking at the moonlight special and DrJones on Mtn-elec and a few others. Very low output is a must for me, not looking for it to be a hotrod and not even sure if I want the single/reflector E2 or TIR/triple E2L. Don’t usually use tail-switch for an EDC and want something I can set up just how I like (without paying the premium for a Pflexpro, despite how much I want a light from him).

I got a couple S2+ triples from PflexPro. They are good. Well worth the money.

I would too if the emitter options were greater and needed something that bulletproof. This is more of a tint snob build than an EDC I can run over with a dump truck.

That’s odd Tom Tom, mine was water cooled shaft drive with a hydraulic clutch, never had it worked on in 50,000 miles. Dual overhead cam 16V V4. Drove the snot out of it too! Started easily from 10-115 degrees, rode it daily regardless of weather. Love Honda’s. :heart_eyes:
Averaged about 41 mpg, got 51 on the rare occasion I could stay out of the throttle. Never got less than 33 even racing it constantly to 147 mph, it’s top speed.

Perhaps we are talking about different bikes.

In the UK we had the Honda VF750 and 1000, which very quickly developed a terrible reputation for camchain, and other, problems. They were also chain drive.

Eventually Honda gave up completely on their camchains and put in an all-gear system.

Read about it here:

Though they all run on chains again nowadays, those gears are too expensive, and I think they must have found an engineer who could design a simple chain system to be reliable.

By the way, the replacement chains and tensioners were extremely expensive, HyVo silent, engine out job, complete disassembly, crankcases split, etc. If you neglected to do this, the chains would get so loose that, as well as sounding like a bag of nails, they would chew up the passages in the block and fill the engine with swarf.

I traded my worn-out CB750KZ for a CBX550, and was glad to see the back of it. Curiously two weeks later my father was visited late at night by the Police (it was registered there) to enquire about who I had sold it to (a reputable dealer as a part exchange, though they had not yet sent in their half of the paperwork.) Turned out that it had been used as a getaway vehicle for an armed robbery of a jewellers in London, then abandoned.

I spoke with the dealer later, they were a bit sheepish, it was bought with cash, and they had neglected to keep any record of the buyer, nevermind fill in the forms. Sold for spares, apparently.

The VFR750 that emerged from this mess was one of the sweetest, most reliable bikes ever made. And the RC30 one of the best racers.

I got hurt in an on-the-job incident and both arms were down for a long time, surgery at both elbows. I sold my Sabre to my cousin and with a month it was totalled in a crazy parking lot accident. A driver was arguing with someone standing beside the car, angry, he stomped the gas and backed out of his space as my cousin drove in to the gas station for fuel. The impact of the pick-up truck sent my cousin flying nearly 40’ and trashed his ankle, the bike was smashed beyond repair. :frowning:

Any news on when this little beaut will start shipping? I’ve heard on the other thread from FireFlies that it is beginning to, just wondering…

I got my shipping notice Sunday (yesterday)

Cool! Thanks, I’ll be on the lookout! :slight_smile:

Looks like my PL47 is in Denver CO, have no idea why Colorado instead of LA or Chicago. Beijing EMS still shows on the initial response but the dotted line and green pin shows it to have landed in the States at CO. I have NO idea… still no estimate on delivery date.

Tracking shows the last scan at Beijing on Dec 4, 8:47AM, oddly enough.

I dont know much about shipping/mail services but that could simply be due to overload at other locations or something like that maybe?

Well, I see something coming into customs at LA, Chicago always struck me as odd. But Denver? Man that’s way into the country to be intercepting customs packages! But as you say, could just be an overload overflow thing…